Original: I do believe you think what now you speak;
Modern: I believe you mean what you’re saying right now;

Original: But what we do determine oft we break.
Modern: But we often break the promises we make to ourselves.

Original: Purpose is but the slave to memory,
Modern: Our intentions are controlled by our memories,

Original: Of violent birth, but poor validity;
Modern: Born from strong emotions, but they don’t last long;

Original: Which now, like fruit unripe, sticks on the tree,
Modern: Right now they cling to us like unripe fruit on a tree,

Original: But fall unshaken when they mellow be.
Modern: But they fall away naturally when they ripen and mature.

Original: Most necessary ‘tis that we forget
Modern: It’s actually necessary that we forget

Original: To pay ourselves what to ourselves is debt.
Modern: To keep the promises we owe to ourselves.

Original: What to ourselves in passion we propose,
Modern: What we promise ourselves when we’re emotional,

Original: The passion ending, doth the purpose lose.
Modern: We lose that sense of purpose when the emotion fades.

Original: The violence of either grief or joy
Modern: The intensity of both sorrow and happiness

Original: Their own enactures with themselves destroy.
Modern: Destroys the very actions they inspire.

Original: Where joy most revels, grief doth most lament;
Modern: Where joy celebrates most, grief mourns most deeply;

Original: Grief joys, joy grieves, on slender accident.
Modern: Sorrow can become joy, and joy can become sorrow, over the smallest things.

Original: This world is not for aye, nor ‘tis not strange
Modern: This world doesn’t last forever, and it’s not strange

Original: That even our loves should with our fortunes change;
Modern: That even our loves change along with our circumstances;

Original: For ‘tis a question left us yet to prove,
Modern: Because we still don’t know for certain

Original: Whether love lead fortune, or else fortune love.
Modern: Whether love controls our fate, or our fate controls our love.

Original: The great man down, you mark his favourite flies,
Modern: When a powerful man falls, watch how his favorites abandon him,

Original: The poor advanc’d makes friends of enemies;
Modern: When a poor man rises up, his enemies become his friends;

Original: And hitherto doth love on fortune tend,
Modern: And this shows how love depends on good fortune,

Original: For who not needs shall never lack a friend,
Modern: Because those who don’t need help will always have friends,

Original: And who in want a hollow friend doth try,
Modern: And whoever is in need and tests a false friend

Original: Directly seasons him his enemy.
Modern: Quickly turns that friend into an enemy.

Original: But, orderly to end where I begun,
Modern: But, to finish properly where I started,

Original: Our wills and fates do so contrary run
Modern: Our desires and our destinies work against each other

Original: That our devices still are overthrown;
Modern: So that our plans are constantly ruined;

Original: Our thoughts are ours, their ends none of our own.
Modern: We control our thoughts, but we can’t control how things turn out.

Original: So think thou wilt no second husband wed;
Modern: So you think you’ll never marry a second husband;

Original: But die thy thoughts when thy first lord is dead.
Modern: But those thoughts will die when your first husband is dead.

In Act III, Scene ii, line 134 and following of Hamlet, the Prince of Denmark converses with Horatio before the performance of “The Murder of Gonzago.” Hamlet praises Horatio’s balanced temperament and stoic nature, expressing his deep admiration for his friend’s ability to accept fortune’s blows without complaint. He confides in Horatio that he values this quality above all others, as Horatio is not merely fortune’s slave. Hamlet then reveals his plan: he has inserted speeches into the evening’s play that mirror the circumstances of his father’s murder, and he asks Horatio to carefully observe King Claudius’s reaction during one particular scene that resembles the poisoning of Old Hamlet.

As the royal court assembles for the entertainment, Hamlet positions himself near Ophelia rather than sitting with his mother, Queen Gertrude. A brief, tense exchange occurs between Hamlet and Claudius about the prince’s state of mind, followed by sexually charged banter between Hamlet and Ophelia that is both crude and cutting. The players then begin their performance with a dumb show (a pantomimed preview) that depicts a king being murdered by poison poured in his ear while sleeping, after which the murderer seduces the queen. The actual play then commences with a dialogue between the Player King and Player Queen about love, mortality, and the likelihood of remarriage after death.

Hamlet tells the story of Prince Hamlet of Denmark, who is visited by the ghost of his recently deceased father. The ghost reveals that he was murdered by Hamlet’s uncle Claudius, who has now married Hamlet’s mother Gertrude and assumed the throne. Commanded by his father’s spirit to seek revenge, Hamlet struggles with doubt, melancholy, and the moral complexity of his task. To investigate the ghost’s claims and plan his revenge, he feigns madness, which creates tension throughout the Danish court.

As Hamlet deliberates, his erratic behavior affects everyone around him, particularly his love interest Ophelia, daughter of the king’s advisor Polonius. To test Claudius’s guilt, Hamlet stages a play mirroring his father’s murder, which confirms the king’s culpability. However, Hamlet’s actions become increasingly destructive—he accidentally kills Polonius while the old man spies on him, and his rejection of Ophelia contributes to her descent into genuine madness and eventual drowning.

The play reaches its climax when Ophelia’s brother Laertes returns to avenge his father’s death. Claudius manipulates Laertes into challenging Hamlet to a duel, secretly poisoning Laertes’s sword and preparing poisoned wine as backup. The final scene erupts in tragedy: during the duel, both Hamlet and Laertes are wounded by the poisoned blade, Gertrude accidentally drinks the poisoned wine, and Hamlet finally kills Claudius. As Hamlet dies, he names Prince Fortinbras of Norway as Denmark’s next ruler, bringing the cycle of revenge and political instability to a close. The play ends with Fortinbras restoring order to the Danish court as bodies are carried off in a funeral march.